Network Vision/LTE - Central Iowa Market (Des Moines and surrounding areas)

[NightShift]

If you're going either way on 35 out of Des Moines, and plan on using any data whatsoever, in my experience a Verizon PRL is a must (1x only anyone?). Even holding a call in some place north of Ames and south of Albert Lea (where there is mostly NOTHING but the highway) can be very difficult. Amazing how long that corridor has been neglected. Funny (yet not funny) that once you cross into MN/MO you're right back on 3G again. Shows what importance Iowa really is to Sprint as a whole (Ha!). Sprint really does need to get on the ball though, I can only really count on 3G in Des Moines and anywhere connected by 80 (Quad Cities, Cedar Rapids/Iowa City, Waterloo, Council Bluffs etc). And that doesn't necessarily mean reliable 3G either. Marshalltown, Carroll, Mason City, Fort Dodge, Ottumwa, are just a few places I have been that have been (still are?) 1x only. The only reason I say that they may not be is that the last time I was in Marshalltown (in March) I saw eHRPD (testing maybe?). At this point, if Sprint brings some solid speeds and consistency back (especially in DSM), great, but the first carrier to approach their value (price and coverage wise) with an iPhone and an unlimited plan (yes I know, a lot to ask) is getting my business. This is 2013 not 2002, seeing 100-300kbps down on a frequent basis in a metro of 500,000 and leaving a major cross country Interstate highway perpetually stuck at 2G until who knows when is absolutely pathetic.

 

 

I'm excited for some of the 1xrtt towers in Iowa to finally see some upgrades. Those seem to be mixed among the central and eastern market. I was one some of those towers in the eastern market and had trouble just getting voice calls to go through. Things along the 35 corridor were okay until I started getting close to the MN border then things went downhill fast. The network is having issues with both data and voice.

 

No doubt that the further north of Ames you get on I-35 the worse service gets. North of US Hwy 20 data gets sketchy, last summer I repeatedly had to power cycle my phone regain a data connection.  Between US Hwy 18 and the MN border data was unusable.  So much for internet radio...

 

Also found that near the Nevada city hall my phone would roam even though the Sprint coverage map shows 1x Sprint coverage throughout the town.

[Justindcarter79]

That was at the tower at MLK and Hickman but they were working up the road by the bus barn.

[Justindcarter79]

I saw workers down at the corner of Delaware and Broadway Replacing equipment on that tower

[gostallion]

there is no Sprint tower at Delaware and Broadway.  there is one farther north on Delaware around ne58th. a new one at broadway would be great, closer to me, but then again i'm only sending smoke signals

Edited June 19, 2013 by gostallion

[Justindcarter79]

It's across from Decarlo demolition and shows as sprint on their site.

[bmoses]

It's across from Decarlo demolition and shows as sprint on their site.

 

you mean the tower across from this place?

 

Al De Carlo Demolition Comore info‎

 

260 Northeast 44th Avenue

Des Moines, IA 50313

 

if that's the case i would say closer to Broadway and 2nd ave would be a better description. as to the workers being there, yes there were. I stopped by there today and talked to them, they were there working on AT&T, not sprint i posted about it in the sponsor section in the Iowa thread but since it wasn't sprint i didn't post it in this thread. The worker there said the rumor he heard was there was a shortage of workers and that's what was holding up sprint deployment in central Iowa, so take that for what you will.....

[Justindcarter79]

The one at Cornell and Broadway but yes I believe that's it. I wonder if it's a worker shortage and or equipment shortage ? I knew Sprint would screw the pooch when it came to keeping up, they have always been awful at staying on top of things. I would be really mad if I was Dan Hesse and my employees where causing me to have to sell my own stock.

[bmoses]

The one at Cornell and Broadway but yes I believe that's it. I wonder if it's a worker shortage and or equipment shortage ? I knew Sprint would screw the pooch when it came to keeping up, they have always been awful at staying on top of things. I would be really mad if I was Dan Hesse and my employees where causing me to have to sell my own stock.

 

he was hard to understand but the impression i got was that equipment and everything else was ready to go, just waiting on workers. not surprising though since every carrier is doing something to their network and i'm sure the workers travel all over and don't just stay in one area so getting them to the middle of no where iowa would be a pain.

[gostallion]

hey, i was a headend and microwave engineer at Heritage cable so show me to the tower, i will get it going!!

[Mike999990]

The Sprint salesman told me I would have 4g in 2 months too. That was over 3 years ago. Took alot longer.

When I got my Palm 700p and I wanted to make sure Sprint had 3g coverage in Des Moines in 07' the rep told me they were actually the only carrier to have 4g already, to which I replied, there isn't 4g yet....

[Justindcarter79]

I forgot AT&T hasn't deployed LTE here yet either.

[cerebasan]

i just did a speedtest @ 4:30. Ping was 120, 1.11 mpbs. Not too bad speeds but that's with the majority of downtown gone home.

[cerebasan]

So does anyone here think that we will just see enhanced 3g speeds or will we actually get LTE or both? Is it possible they will skip us over for LTE like they did with WiMAX?

[bmoses]

So does anyone here think that we will just see enhanced 3g speeds or will we actually get LTE or both? Is it possible they will skip us over for LTE like they did with WiMAX?

 

no, this isn't anything like wimax. clearwire was doing the wimax rollout and they were poorly managed and didn't have enough funding. Sprint is doing their own NV update. every tower is getting upgraded, which means faster backhaul and LTE. i've personally seen fiber being run to many towers around here and have found permits pulled for the upgrades on a lot of them too, its happening, just a matter of when, not if.

[Justindcarter79]

Seems like everything sprint does is never on schedule. I am going to push to move to Verizon in August if nothing has still been done on the towers. I would be fired if I ran a company like Sprint does. lol

[Guest mbrinson]

I'm in the same boat, i'm actually thinking about jumping boat either when my contract is up or if I can get out of my contract someway or somehow. I've been paying the $10 premium data since they introduced it and we haven't seen any results around here in the Des Moines area. We keep hearing soon, soon, soon but its been 4 years, and my 3G speeds are horrible!

[sweyers]

So much for internet radio...

 

THIS. #1 reason why I hate Sprint in Iowa right now, you can't stream Pandora on friggin' 1x!

[dleewee]

If you are mad about the $10 SPRINT fee, have fun paying an extra $30+ for not unlimited data on VZW. I'd just as well wait a few more months and get Lte and unlimited for the lower price.

Also, the Softbank merger is now on track to close as early as July so I think things will be moving fast from here.

[S4GRU]

There been a lot of Sprint complaints in this thread. Please knock it off as it is a violation of our posting guidelines to continue to rant about Sprint. We do not host Sprint complaints.

 

We will not beg you to stay. If there is a better choice for your needs you should make it. But we don't want to hear about it.

 

Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[Guest mbrinson]

Sorry didnt really mean to do that, just ranting about it LOL. Yes I did see that the merger got approved yesterday, been waiting this long I might as well wait it out and see what happens! I'm sure it will be nice once 4G goes active here

[Beef]

Test driving Verizon 4g LTE on my sprint EVO LTE with a hotspot. 

 This is in Adel on a jobsite.

 

[Beef]

Here is Sprint 3g for comparison. LTE is awesome. 

 

[WiWavelength]

The latency appears to be dominated largely by that of the VZW hotspot LTE/Wi-Fi transition.  But your Sprint EV-DO speeds are quite decent, right in line with what is expected on the average from Rev A.  So, what is your point or "beef"?

 

AJ

[dleewee]

I think he is just excited for "native" LTE

 

I got on Sprint LTE in Missouri a couple months ago and wow I was super impressed with the coverage and speeds.

[Beef]

I don't know if those are good numbers but it seems faster just browsing. I didn't know Adel would have VZW LTE either.  Haven't played with the hotspot much but it was still connected 75 yds away. 

 

If those speeds are what Sprint is bringing, I'll be happy.